Use this topic for posts that will collect community stars for the East Hill Dryden Rail Trail course. You can also ask questions or make comments about this course.
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Today I ran what I’m calling the Ivy League Ultra Challenge — a route comprising as many continuous distinct Challenge courses as I could fathom within a reasonable amount of time. The best route list I could come up with are most of the ones around Cornell and its environs. The morning played out like this…
I parked at the most central location I could find — the Mundy Wildflower Garden lot off Caldwell Road. (The arboretum gate was closed at 4:45 a.m.) Given the recent rain, I thought it best to run the courses from driest to wettest.
I started the run by heading over to the west end of the East Hill Rec Way and ran the East Hill Dryden Rail Trail (1) as a single out-and-back, with the turnaround point at the chicken wire blocking the construction zone. Then an out-and-back for two completions of the East Hill Rec Way (2). It would have been most efficient to run FH Fox starting and ending at the Rec Way parking lot on Game Farm Road but I wasn’t carrying enough water or calories.
After the double EHRW, it was back over toward the arboretum with a short detour to the outdoor track for a Sweet 1600 (3). Back at Mundy I made a stop at my aid station car to dispose of layers and gear I no longer needed and to refill my water bottle. Then a short leg with Cornell Botanical Gardens (4), followed by Beebe Lake (5), both of which officially start and end close to the car. I could feel myself tiring and slowing a mile into Beebe Lake. After finishing it, I peeled off more layers and chugged a can of maté. The caffeine, plus the switch from tights to shorts, kept me feeling great the rest of the way.
Next was Fall Creek Trails (6), starting from the Mundy lot and covering all the ground from there. Partway through FCT I snapped my lone pic for the run — a solitary, stately duck perched stoically on a large boulder beside Fall Creek near the suspension bridge. Another aid station stop, then off for the Cornell Scenic Circuit (7). One last car stop, then back up the arboretum hill to intersect FH Fox (8). I finished that loop, ran the downhill back to the car, and called it a day.
Eight Challenge courses, 36.2 total miles, 32.4 which counted toward the Challenge. Four of the courses I hadn’t run yet in 2026. The morning made for a great training run for my next ultra four weeks from now.
Couldn’t think of a better thing to do on Father’s Day morning than run with Miles. It went smoothly and Miles enjoyed pointing out the dogs we passed. When we were done and I was stretching, he took a turn pushing the stroller! Not a great pic but he was pushing the stroller and I was just holding on.
one to cross and one not to … pretty much my
mental state tonight … pretty night to run or walk or cycle on the trail and I saw plenty of people doing just that. Ran through the RunGo “turnaround” command on the way out to check out the construction site by Rt 13 but otherwise stayed the course … envisioned an enraged Gandalf intoning “ YOU SHALL NOT PASS” at the bridge over Pine Tree Rd - and I had no intention of doing so …i had enough trouble getting back as it was …
I took Theo here today for a stroller run. As it says on the course page the turns on Game Farm and Stevenson were meant to be temporary until the connector trail opened. I prefer not to run on roads with Theo so I opted to use the connector trail and run past the original turnaround point to Route 13. The trail is currently closed about 0.1 miles before Route 13, so this version of the course ended up being a bit short (7.3 miles according my GPS watch). If this meets Adam’s muster it will be our 9th stroller course of the Challenge.
I’ve edited the RunGo directions to use the Rail Trail connector now—sorry for the delay. I think it’s more like 7.2 now, but we’ll wave our hands at that for now, since it will change again after the bridge construction is done.
